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Lessons from Joost

Jul 1, 2009
in Entrepreneurship

I am not going to rehash Om Malik's excellent summary of "What went wrong with Joost" but I did want to dive deeper into a few points.  As I have always said, raising too much money can be a curse and not a blessing.  Here is an excerpt from my post in 2006Trust me, I [...]

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I want it NOW, I want it REAL TIME

Jun 16, 2009
in Entrepreneurship, On Demand

I was recently asked by a friend if he should get his son the new Nintendo DSi.  This would be an upgrade from the current DS and also add the photo capability.  As I thought about my own son's usage of the device, I said no.  Once my son got an IPod Touch for music [...]

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Occam's Razor and the current state of venture

Jun 2, 2009
in Entrepreneurship, Venture Capital

I have made many posts in the past about focus and doing more with less, and as I continued on this path it reminded me of Occam's Razor, the idea that the simplest explanation to any problem is the best explanation.  Of course Occam's Razor can get more complex but over the years it has [...]

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Inspirational video for entrepreneurs

May 12, 2009
in Entrepreneurship

Jonathan Kay from Grasshopper sent me a great video on entrepreneurship.  First I love the inspirational message.  Secondly, I like the use of a viral video to cleverly promote his virtual PBX numbers for entrepreneurs.  Take a look and hopefully it will brighten up your day. What I love about the message is that entrepreneurship [...]

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Pioneers get arrows in their backs

Apr 29, 2009
in Entrepreneurship, On Demand

Pioneers get arrows in their backs – I have experienced it firsthand from an active investor's viewpoint and written about it in the past.  Being early in a market is great but being too early can be deadly.  Just like the settlers in the westward migration, entrepreneurs who are too early will get arrows in [...]

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Growing your business in a recession

Apr 14, 2009
in Entrepreneurship

I read a great article by James Surowiecki in the New Yorker the other day titled "Hanging Tough."  In the piece, James gives a historical perspective on companies that thrived and grew during previous recessions by increasing spending on on advertising and R&D.  While I am not advocating that companies go out and blow their [...]

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Cover the basics before you raise capital

Apr 2, 2009
in Entrepreneurship, Venture Capital

No matter how many times I told my friend that he needed to get a deck together for a potential capital raise and model out some thoughts on market sizing and financials, I ran into resistance.  It was not because he didn't think it was important or that it mattered.  It was because he was [...]

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Taking advantage of the horrible environment

Feb 20, 2009
in Entrepreneurship

My expectations for 2009 are that things will get worse before they get better.  On the portfolio company side, I would rather have my companies growing at a lesser rate getting closer to breakeven than growing too aggressively and burning lots of cash.  Once your house is in order (see some earlier posts I made [...]

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Positioning and pitch decks for startups

Jan 29, 2009
in Entrepreneurship, Venture Capital

A friend of mine is putting together his first deck for potential investors.  In typical startup fashion, they launched a product, got a number of users, and then iterated several times to improve the service.  With the product in the hands of tens of thousands of users, they started getting inbound requests from larger organizations [...]

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More reasons to watch your burn

Oct 22, 2008
in Entrepreneurship

Despite these tough times, there are still some bullheaded companies who think they can grow their way out of this mess or find the right M&A partner to bail them out.  I can guarantee you that this is a recipe for disaster.  I was on the phone today with the CEO of one our portfolio [...]

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